Hiya all I have been lurking on this site for ages but until now all my questions have been answered with a quick search of the forums. However the time has finally come where I cannot locate an answer to what I would like to try The question is "can you take apart a laptop to get the laptop screen to work on a desktop". My idea is to maul a dead laptop to rip the screen out and mount it in a window on the side of my case. Now I am not sure that this is entierly possible due to interferrence to both the screen and my desktop pc, also the power requirements of the screen. Is this something someone (or someone you know) has done before or am I treading new ground (I know it ain't likely in here as you guys seemed to have done most things that you can with a pc). Thanks in anticipation of answers Wotee
that question has to be the most commonly asked question on this forum, how you managed to miss it when you searched i dont know. ok now for the awnser to your question- Yes it is possible, yes it has been done befor. however its a very expensive operation, this is because you need a controller for the screen, since the controler currently running the screen will be built into the laptop motherboard. the controlers retail at about the cost of a cheap standard LCD. If you have a controler that will work with the screen (which i highly doubt you do) the only other thing to take into account is that you will need an invertor for the backlight. any other questions feel free to ask. and welcome to the forums
hmmm my searching skills seem a bit on the poor side today, tried searching again and still couldn't come up with a post but consider my wrists slapped I did think that it may be the case that normal TFT's had a few more bits and peices in the back as they are a touch deeper than laptop monitors but hoped they wouldn't be too expensive to bolt on. I was hoping the cost for this was going to be very low (managed to get a dead ish laptop from work that was going to be binned) as my budget is pretty much non-existent, so it's not really an option to pay out as much as a cheap TFT. I take it it is not possible to jury rig the controller from the motherboard of the laptop (would definately be more than my very poor electronic skills would be able to cope with anyway.) If not I think I will have to abandon this as a bad idea
im not a mod im not alowed to slap wrists, but i am alowed to laugth at your searching misfortune . Well if the laptop is in a working state there is software you can obtain to make it display what is shown on a differnt machine via a network, this way you would still be able to achive your goal at no extra cost. just put a network card in the main comp and plug the other end in to the stirped down laptop. and you could extend the connectors from the screen to the main bulk of the laptop so that the bits you dont want to see can be hidden away.
Hehe it has been a bad day at work so far and technology at the moment is not my friend, so I will use that as my excuse I am not totally sure what kind of state it is in really, my only critiria was that the screen worked. It may be a possibility tho, and I should be able to manage to make an enclosure for the laptop. Thanks for the Help Mattt, it has given me a fair few things to think about
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=457795&postcount=5 has a bit of information, though the links are a bit old now. But as Mattt said, it can get expensive. Electronics forum is full of the question, not many more answers, but I'll move the thread over just in case.
Right have managed to get my hands on the laptop in question and it's a Toshiba T8000, but there is a slight problem... no power supply. Everything else is intact though, including the battery, so is it simply a matter of finding any old power supply that can do 15v at 3.0a? or would I have to locate one that specifically goes with this laptop? (This may be a totally thick question but I really do have no idea if this will work as I have never own, messed around with or even used a laptop)
as long as its the correct power / voltage rating. and its got the correct type of socket on the end there should be no problems
You could not extend the cables to the screen - there would be signal loss. You could not get the controller from the motherboard - it is an entirely different system. You could use it as a network screen, but there would be considerable lag. You could buy a controller, but spend more than a new lcd. You could read the hundreds of posts saying it cant be done...
your first point is only if there is signifcant extention, were talking from one side of a case to the other, so probrably only 10cm which would result in very little signal loss (this of course is cable dependent). second point has already been covered. your third point depends on the specs of the laptop and the main machine and what he is doing. forth point has already been covered. but it can be done and has been done, and if you had actuly read the thread you would see he had searched .
